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How Much Does SMS Marketing Cost?
Winback Team on Jul 15, 2021 3:46:14 PM
We are already inching towards the second half of 2021, and here you are finding the SMS marketing costs! But it’s never too late to realize the power of the archaic marketing channel that has helped countless businesses since the inception of feature phones as it continues to find relevance among the plethora of apps available in smartphones.
SMS marketing provides you with a very convenient channel that acts as a transactional and marketing platform with a consent-based approach. Also, it isn’t dependent on any OS or device type as long as a person is connected to the cellular network. Hence, its value propositions are quite unique and powerful at the same time.
Today, we will share some insights into the pricing structures of some popular SMS marketing services and how you should approach them. We will also have a look into the technicalities to help you make the best decision for your business. Follow this quick guide on SMS marketing prices to synergize your outreach efforts in 2021:
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is the promotion of products and services via cellular network-based messaging services. Companies send short pieces of information to their clients worldwide with the help of bulk SMS services to enhance brand awareness and build trust with the clients. These messages are limited to a maximum of 160 characters. The main goal of SMS marketing is to increase conversions through instant outreach by prompting a targeted action to recipients.
When implementing close-range marketing tactics, SMS is an ideal way of notifying people within your vicinity to any immediate offers without having to use push-notification applications. It is also an amazing way to send reminders for upcoming events and engage your customers by polling their opinion.
How Much Does SMS Marketing Cost?
When compared with other marketing channels, SMS Marketing is actually the most cost-effective channel. When you pay for television, the radio, you are casting a pretty wide net. If you want, you might limit your audience by geographical location. But you are still paying for a message that is unlikely to impact the majority of your audience. SMS marketing, on the other hand, targets much more focused audiences.
In a <>text message campaign, you can only text those who give their consent first, and that is a pretty good thing. Best of all, the SMS channel is very personal and immediate. Most people tend to see text within minutes of receiving it. You will probably assume at this point that because of SMS’s behemoth open rate and response time, it must be a more expensive form of marketing. It isn’t so! In fact, you can send out text messages to <>your loyal subscribers for just pennies per text.
In general, you have two main costs associated with your SMS Marketing, the fee for sending the text and the costs for renting keywords. Each platform or company has its own pricing options, but the most typical model is a monthly fee that includes a certain number of keywords and texts.
In terms of prices, you may find it in the ballpark of $5 and $25 per keyword per month and between $0.01 and $0.05 per text. Many SMS marketing companies offer packages that include a fixed number of text messages (for instance-1,000 to 24.000) and a fixed number of keywords (for example – between 3 and 10 usually) for a flat monthly fee. You can also expect to pay somewhere between $50 and $500 per month depending on your volume of the text, number of keywords, and desired features.
Many vendors allow free inbound messages and “sub-keywords.” Sub-keywords are those words that trigger a particular SMS response, such as “STOP” to opt-out of your SMS campaign. When you are going to select an SMS marketing platform, always try to look for the ones that offer you these useful features that will help you to expand your options:
- Voting & Polling – These two offer a great opportunity to leverage the immediacy of SMS to gain insight about their customers and also enhance the engagement of your businesses. American Idol viewers voting for their favorite contestants is a classic example of this.
- Multimedia Messages – These multimedia messages let you send more than just text to your subscribers; you can add images, videos, and even engaging sounds to attract your viewers.
- Unique Coupon Codes – This is perhaps the most valuable feature in SMS marketing: sharing trackable coupons.
- Drip Campaigns – Drip campaigns are just like an email drip campaign, except using text messages. It lets you bring hands-off on day-to-day campaign development once you have set them up and deployed them.
The above-mentioned costs are intended to give you a rough idea, but the amount depends on two factors. Firstly, the number of text messages you want to send/receive and the value-added services. In most cases, both the sending limits and value additions increase in direct proportions as you go for bigger plans.
With this being said, many providers might also offer packages where you pay a flat rate against a fixed quantity of messages (or individual messages) to a predefined number of recipients. This pricing model is particularly attractive for eCommerce businesses as they have to rely on SMS marketing to recover abandoned carts, one of the most dreaded problems in the eCommerce industry.
When it comes to SMS marketing, none do it better than Winback. With Winback, you can recover up to 34% of your online store’s abandoned carts, which makes Winback the absolute best SMS marketing service provider in the industry. Our cost-effective plans start at only $59 per month and offer 3500 monthly SMS. Also, our customers see 35X ROI on every dollar they spend on Winback’s plans. If you would like to get in touch with the Winback team, message us through the live chat option on our website or drop us an email.
Some companies can also offer pay-as-you-go pricing structures where you need to pay for every message you send instead of paying a fixed amount for sending limit brackets. But fixed monthly pricing is the best way to leverage SMS marketing for your business.
What Are The Different Types Of Business Texting Services?
SMS marketing services are classified into two types: VoIP SMS marketing and SMS marketing software. The former uses virtual caller ids, while the latter is a software-based bulk messaging platform. Naturally, VoIP SMS marketing provides you with a greater choice when it comes to choosing features and accessibility, including features like the ability to reply. On the other hand, the SMS marketing platforms are a good pick if you don’t expect to entertain much voice traffic.
In my opinion, VoIP is a better choice since API-based integrations with channels like email are easier with them. Also, you can get better visibility of your efforts on your CRM software. You can also secure a toll-free or a local number which can be extremely beneficial in case you are targeting a new region as having local credentials adds to your trustworthiness. However, you cannot expect many advanced features with it, like in the case of proper SMS marketing software. Depending on your business requirements, you can choose the ideal solution among the two.
Summing Up
We hope that you found this SMS pricing guide fruitful. While there are a lot of options in the market today, Winback is your best choice. No doubt choosing the best solution depends very much on your current needs and your future business plans. Also, your target region can make an impact on your decision.
It is recommended to weigh all pros and cons before moving with any of these services since all of them may appear identical at least at the face value. Scalability is an equally important factor, so you need to keep it in mind since the pricing disparity can make the task tough later.
Instead of migrating to alternative solutions, it would be best if you consider all such factors beforehand. Overall, Winback’s dependable and proven SMS marketing service is the best option available in the market today.
Nonetheless, SMS marketing is a must in today’s times, and you should also see if the solution of your choice supports integration with your CRM and other MarTech tools. In the end, the ability of your SMS marketing platform to produce coordinated results plays a superior role than its standalone capabilities.
Topics: SMS Marketing
